the reason for stars

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:12:50 -0500

fairytalemood: “Barbe Bleue” by Aurélien Cantou

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:36:35 -0500

fairytalemood:

“Barbe Bleue” by Aurélien Cantou

slowlyeden: John William Waterhouse dress details: Part II....

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:00:31 -0500

slowlyeden:

John William Waterhouse dress details: Part II. (Part I)

Also wasn’t the Pope just saying that we are obligated to do good and not do evil, called by...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:40:22 -0500

Also wasn’t the Pope just saying that we are obligated to do good and not do evil, called by our human nature, which transcends religious boundaries? That’s not “needing someone else to tell you what’s right and wrong” that’s just saying be excellent to each other.

toushindai replied to your post: rosaoffinland replied to your post: Why do you… I...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:28:00 -0500

toushindai replied to your post: rosaoffinland replied to your post: Why do you…

I thought that post was about the pope after your quote last night. Would be my guess.

That also makes sense.

Well, while I have many (many many) problems with the way the Catholic hierarchy has been constructed and abused over the centuries, I do believe in the idea behind it. A community of faith should be led by people who have devoted their lives to thinking and counseling about that faith, and I like reading/hearing what they’ve said because they approach it from that deep contemplation. Their words can bring me new insights, can spur me to different arguments, can articulate a matter I’ve been struggling with—we’re a community, and we should be in conversation.

It doesn’t mean I’m not critical of what they’re saying, or that I bow to every utterance the pope (or cardinals, or bishops, or priests, or the Catechism, or the Church Fathers) make. But Francis has fifty-five years and a lifetime’s worth of contemplation and experience on me. There’s a chance he might make some good points. I reject the idea that listening to those who have made my faith their life’s work somehow diminishes my independence of thought. We’re all sincerely engaged with our faith, and we all want to be as fully in communion with God and with each other as possible.

It’s offering a shoulder to help your brother or sister walk, because we’re all journeying to the same place.

Also, after years of sticking my fingers in my ears and going “lalala I can’t hear Your Holiness,” it’s nice to have a pope who speaks on tolerance and goodness and the innate creativity of the human condition.

rosaoffinland replied to your post: Why do you need his approval? maybe the anon is talking...

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:21:31 -0500

rosaoffinland replied to your post: Why do you need his approval?

maybe the anon is talking ´bout God

Ah, that would make sense.

The problem is that this question…doesn’t make a lot of sense to me? It’s the equivalent of going up to someone explaining why the sky is blue and demanding “Why do you need their approval? You don’t need physicists to tell you about Rayleigh scattering and wavelengths, or biologists tell you about opsins and the visual pathway! Look at it for yourself! Don’t let scientists dictate the color of the sky!”

No one is dictating to me what I should think or feel—I’m reacting to a reality, and the way that very intelligent people before me have conceived of and constructed that reality. If you see the sky as red then my explanation might not make sense, and that’s something we can talk about. But don’t tell me to “figure it out for myself” when I did (or am, it’s a work in progress.)

Also, anon, calling people unthinking sheep is not attractive when they’ve got a text-heavy religion tag.

Why do you need his approval? Why do you need someone else to tell you what's right and wrong for you. We're only here for a short time. You don't need someone to tell you how you how to think and feel. Figure that out for yourself.

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:26:00 -0500

This is…a thoroughly nonspecific message, anon.

what are your thoughts on drugs like marijuana, mushrooms etc. (as in psychedelic drugs that are found in nature) being used in a ceremoniously religious sense? like you hear about people saying their experience with mushrooms or ayahuasca etc. woke them up to god and i'm just curious what you think about the validity of religious experience garnered through psychedelics? my opinion on it is sort of a well god must have made them for a reason stance but i've heard lots of arguments there.

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:01:11 -0500

I’m hesitant to give a firm opinion on this topic, anon. Catholicism doesn’t have a tradition of ceremonial or religious drug usage—anything except therapeutic use of substances is considered a “grave offense” according to the Catechism. (Speaking as a boozy Irish Catholic from a line of boozy Irish Catholics, that one…hasn’t quite sunk in, but generally we have to wait until after church.) Since the practice isn’t mine I don’t feel comfortable expressing an opinion on it—and it is absolutely not my place to comment on the validity of other religious traditions.

Personally, I struggle enough with trying to reconcile my desire for objectivity and the irrationality of my belief. I don’t know if I could deal with blurring that distinction further.

arpeggia: Ian Crawley - Here We Go (Triptych) (detail), 1997,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:32:15 -0500

arpeggia:

Ian Crawley - Here We Go (Triptych) (detail), 1997, scratchboard, 28” x 68” | More posts

angels as deeply-scored scratches on the record of reality #making the song skip and jerk every time they appear #they may be an integral part of the cosmos #but that doesn’t mean they’re compatible with the senses #the sound of their voices raking across human ears like the needle encountering a scrape on an old symphony recording #every angel is terror (wizzard890)

onlymystories: THIS. SO MUCH THIS.

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:22:38 -0500

onlymystories:

THIS. SO MUCH THIS.

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:04:36 -0500

“

The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.

[…]

The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good.

[…]

Today is [the feast of] Santa Rita, Patron Saint of impossible things – but this seems impossible: let us ask of her this grace, this grace that all, all, all people would do good and that we would encounter one another in this work, which is a work of creation, like the creation of the Father. A work of the family, because we are all children of God, all of us, all of us! And God loves us, all of us! May Santa Rita grant us this grace, which seems almost impossible. Amen.

”

- Pope Francis I [x] (via notbecauseofvictories)

okay though the likeness of God thing that often gets read as ‘in the appearance of God’ which is ah pretty clearly not a. great interpretation. because then you get to ‘what the hell does God look like anyway’ and it devolves from there but the way it was once explained to me (i believe this was in a christian and the arts class?) was that the main aspect of God is that He is creative and that the act of creativity is His main act (the idea of creative love is kind of big in my conception of God? and i think it shows up in a minor prophet or two not exactly in those words and i mean a lot of the ways that Jesus loved were creative) and so as humans we have inherited God’s creativity for better or for worse (i also tend to think that the process of being is inherently creative because you have to remake yourself at least every day [which is why the articles about ‘the habits of creative people’ bother me because like??? everyone is creative???? no.]) (i can tell that the pope has read borges.) (borgevino)

#did the pope just almost implicitly revolutionized the church’s approach to extra Ecclesiam nulla salus? #to create a culture of encounter; where we constantly create ourselves; our bodies and souls are not fixed points #but emerge and redefine as they arc through space and time and intersect and exert wills and acts upon each other #and those wills and acts must come from a place of grace; not force; from a place that is not impositional #but requires equal and opposite reaction to have effect #’a culture of encounter’ #like #it’s still the church; it’s still about expansion #but this is an explicit rejection of the violence (both physical and otherwise) of their colonising practices #i’m not religious in any way that counts anymore #(the universe is holy because humans refract their grace through the search within it for ever greater truths!) #but this is interesting and indicates a new direction that the catholic church desperately needs #there is such strong grace of human nature and the history and understanding of that contained within catholicism #it would be a shame to lose it to archaic practices and suffocating adherence to the past (okayophelia)

livesandliesofwizards: Ministry men and women were often so...

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:01:00 -0500

livesandliesofwizards:

Ministry men and women were often so heavily married they depressed even their spouses, and so it was with some trepidation that they confiscated a trove of back-alley Knockturn-traded erotica, a terrible naughty pictures racket that used film developed in Amortentia to coax innocent Muggles into licentiousness.

“It’s despicable!” Cattermole said to the Prophet people who’d come to write up the scandal.

“Downright disgusting and depraved,” said Umbridge.

“A bit bewitching, though,” Ogden reported, “Imagine what it must be like for the weak little Muggles. Poor fellows. They’ve got no defense against this sort of thing.”

This became the consensus around the drinking fountain until Weasley, the resident expert on Muggle-loving, discovered the secret sticky papers Muggles used to combat such self-indulgent sauciness.

“Observe,” he said very solemnly, pushing his glasses up on his nose, “The patron saint of Muggle morality, her nose pointing upwards in defiance of all scarlet behavior. It must be that these stamps, as they are called, are intended to stamp out inappropriate images. What else could Muggles possibly use them for?”

And this was considered sound. Owls were quickly dashed off to the Prophet with corrections. So many poured into the paper all at once that the Reporter In Charge of Howlers became very distraught tracking who had sent what, and whether each letter-writer had properly credited and paid for use of the Ministry Owlery. He had to wonder if there was a better way to do this postal thing.

livesandliesofwizards: “Living without magic is worse than...

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:39:09 -0500

livesandliesofwizards:

“Living without magic is worse than death, you know,” said Miss Rowle’s parents on the day following her eleventh birthday.

For Miss Rowle had not received her letter.

livesandliesofwizards: The handsome young Herbologist had...

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:28:28 -0500

livesandliesofwizards:

The handsome young Herbologist had succeeded in creating the most appealing flower known to witch or wizard. Its scent could induce fantastic visions of those one found most beautiful and beloved. Its thorn could send grateful victims into a blissful, lustful sleep. Already six or seven wizards, convinced that the flower was a stunning woman, had fallen to dueling over that nonexistent lady’s love.

And the Herbologist himself was not immune to its charms. Falling prey to his own trap, he became convinced that his Rosa Fata Morgana was cheating on him.

livesandliesofwizards: The Leaky Cauldron was always meant to...

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:18:37 -0500

livesandliesofwizards:

The Leaky Cauldron was always meant to be more than just a geographic crossroads. For much of its history, its traditional proprietors, the Dodderidges, kept a hidden back room, often in defiance of anti-Muggle laws and even the Statute of Secrecy.

Here, strange new Muggle devices were introduced and refined upon: cameras and ceramic toilets, cocaine and curious antiseptic sprays. Witches who preferred Squibs or half-giants collected in the back room, secure in the Cauldron’s secrecy policy; and wizards whose non-magical lovers were persecuted in Victorian London found this a safe place to engage in a dalliance. Magical painting techniques were invented behind silken screens in the corridor, thanks to a young muse of legendary beauty and dubious name who was perhaps a little bit Veela and who later found fame starring in early Muggle films. Young Hogwarts rebels darted in and out: here was Horace with a half-breed of tremendous power, with whom he could not speak freely at school, and a little bit before him were Albus and Elphias holding court in the corner sedan.

But such places never last long. The Dodderidges doddered out of being some time ago, when waves of political fervor swept our world and dispensed first with the intellectuals and then with the curious and then with the oddball thinkers.

And Tom, fearing for his safety, will not let anyone into the back room now.

retrousse: keladry of mindelan | clea duvall “I’ll be a hero...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:45:22 -0500

retrousse:

keladry of mindelan | clea duvall

“I’ll be a hero one day, just like Mama. Just like the Lioness. Nobody will kill two kittens in front of me then.”

tamora pierce fancast.

mortraineys: the best movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: The...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:34 -0500

mortraineys:

the best movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

” It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs but what a ship is… what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom.”

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:57 -0500

“

[…]

”

- Pope Francis I [x]

do you have any spiritual/religious/what-have-you books you really like???

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:58 -0500

A lot!

C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is my go-to book for those who haven’t really done a lot of reading on the subject, since I think he articulates a lot of very complicated arguments in an accessible way. I can also recommend his Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce, which are fictionalized meditations on the subjects of sin and Purgatory, respectively. *Please be warned, though, Lewis was writing in the 40s/50s, and so he tends to have a strong strain of misogyny and Jewish erasure running through his works.

For a more modern look, I recommend Kathleen Norris—she’s a poet and an essayist who became a Benedictine oblate, and wrote a beautiful reflection on the Liturgy of the Hours and poetry in the Bible in her book The Cloister Walk. She also wrote Amazing Grace, a personal narrative about faith, and a book on acedia and the desert monastics that was really excellent.

Thomas Merton, if you haven’t checked him out—he came to Catholicism late in life, and struggled with it for a long time before becoming a Trappist monk. He kept a diary of his life at the monastery, as well as writing beautiful meditations on social justice, nonviolence, and interfaith understanding in the 40s and 50s. I like his “New Seeds of Contemplation,” because it’s essentially one long meditation on the self, mysticism, humility and uncertainty—however, it’s a book that comes out of the gate swinging, so if you’re not accustomed to reading about faith or aren’t ready for some weighty stuff, I’d give it a pass.

A few more:

N.T. Wright, “Simply Christian,” for New Testament scholarship and accessible writing
Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel—Manning’s an ex-priest, and his struggles with alcoholism lead to beautiful meditations on God’s saving grace.
Joan Chittister, the Benedictine sister who advised President Obama on the Affordable Care Act, has a reflection on Ecclesiastes, “For Everything there is a Season”
Rob Bell’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About God” is about the Emergent Church movement in evangelical/Protestant tradition, but it comes highly recommended.

Also (last word on the subject) I wouldn’t put fiction out of the running as a way of accessing your faith, though it becomes a little more complicated. Joan of Arcadia was formative as hell for me; ditto for Good Omens and Narnia and Milton and even Dogma. Stories are just as important to the ways we think about our faith as nonfiction—Jesus taught with parables for a reason, right?

retrousse: numair salmalín | sendhil ramamurthy “Believe me,...

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:18:00 -0500

retrousse:

numair salmalín | sendhil ramamurthy

“Believe me, Your Grace, I don’t plan to give Ozorne any excuse to rescind my pardon. I was in his dungeons once and see no reason to repeat the experience.”

tamora pierce fancast.